Hello, I hope all is well. I am an 18 year old that is looking to start a business. I have dipped into the service providing area in July where I was supposed to make websites for people but I ended up doing a free trial creating videos for a possible client. I ended up stopping that. Wasn’t leading me to earning income.
My main question here is, what would you tell your 18 year old self to start? I truly like the idea of having an online business. I am in Computer Science at the moment for school and I was thinking of getting into saas. But I also see tons of different videos on different businesses to start. I just want to mention, I do not have shiny object syndrome. I am just interested in starting & getting advice from anyone.
Also, one thing I see often is, dropshipping, smma(which I tried to go in on), trading and Amazon fba. I see this everywhere. I don’t know if truly you can make a large sum of income from it or it’s just the courses that help them.
I started learning about business at 15 where I started a YouTube automation channel and later stopped that. Then got into cutting hair for others. And ever since I have turned 18 I have been learning a lot more on stocks, credit, as well as retirement plans. But truly retirement isn’t my end goal. I just like idea of working towards something.
So if anyone that is in the business areas I have mentioned I’d be open to hear your perspective from it and any perspective from others as well.
Id tell my 18 year old self education is more important.
Learn more about people development and read more books
for what you describe -
- at 18, just a good job, one that pays and allows you to learn about business in situ. and, importantly gives you time for …
- start an affiliate site, google affiliate marketing, start a niche blog, work on it a little everyday, it’ll take a long time, but in the right niche, its great for (survival) passive income
- start freelancing (use fiverr or other freelance sites) - start with projects that are well within your expertise, try and find ones that are very similar so you can reuse code, grow this business.
3 is actually the real business, 2 gives you backup income, 1 allows you to develop pays you and gives you options.
pretty much what i did, but at a later stage in my career, its still what i do… just different % of time on each of the 3
It’s absolutely crucial that you do something that connects with your background, experience and motivations.
If not, you are going to be on the same level as everyone else, or even worse, you are going to be at a disadvantaged in an industry where others already have an interest and knowledge of the subject.
Dropshipping, trading, amazon fba and those types of things are like pop music or cat memes, they are oriented towards the largest common denominator, that’s why they dominate front pages and amass so many views. Steer away from those and look for smaller niches were your interest in computers and websites is going to be relevant.
I personally got into offering IT infrastructure for small non-technical businesses, but I ended up doing staffing and Project Management for early stage startups as well.
Just keep on exploring your industry and go deeper rather than going back, reevaluating and starting over from 0. You are 18 years old, prepare to go deep into a single industry and role for the next 5 years and you will be a monster at 23.
Specialize, people want to do business with an expert in a subject. They want to mentally save you as the X-thing guy, and then move on, only calling you when they need help with X-thing.
Good luck!
I was exactly where you are. So many ideas with all results posted for me to see. It made it easy to wish to try everything. I am 20 now, but started when I was 13, took a break and hit it hard at 15… Here’s what I wish I focused on
Your number one approach is to answer these questions:
- What is something you’d like to learn and become an expert in?
- How can you use this skill to provide value to people? (People pay for value)
- What knowledge must I have in order to GROW this money? (value investing, not trading. Expansion. Systems, etc.)
Hopefully this helps.
Best Regards,
Landon
SaaS is extremely lucrative. There seems to be a million SaaS companies these days. If you could build out something that would automate processes for companies doing things manually, you could make a lot of money. But SaaS can also take a lot out of you, so burnout may be a thing.
YouTube is a money machine if you can get your stride right. If I had started a YT channel at 18, I would be traveling the world more.
Since you are in tech, would you consider a tech website? If you’re a good writer, maybe start a tech blog and see how that develops??
I would tell him to go to a bank and open up a depot for ETFs, diversify and put the monthly savings there instead of into a regular savings account. I would also tell him to find a valve for letting out all the creativity and focus on creating value first, verify it and create branding second…not the other way around, damn it!
I would’ve continued with what you’re doing, Youtube Automation. Or something else with Youtube. This is most likely very long term though.
I would advice to look at what you enjoy, or get a hobby if you can’t find anything, and build a business around that. For example I like driving cars on track, and I now make car parts for track cars. If you can fill a gap then you have a high chance to succeed.
Since you’re doing CS, you can also try to get into game making. Maybe make youtube videos around that. Lots of options really.
You’re still young and you probably live at home so now is the time to try things, by the time you finish school and get a job you’re already stuck.